Just a few months ago, Tilden park seemed to be at imminent risk of losing its beloved steam train attraction.

The miniature railway, which winds through a custom-grown redwood forest and clusters of mini frontier-town buildings, has been a defining feature of the Berkeley Hills since 1952. The trains are sized-down, functional replicas of the steam locomotives that once connected the entire country. At just $4 a ride, this anachronistic museum-amusement-park mashup is hugely popular, drawing an estimated 250,000 visitors each year.

So when the train’s operator went public with a longtime lease dispute last fall and threatened to leave the park, a media flurry ensued.

Ellen Thomsen, who heads the Redwood Valley Railway Corporation that owns and operates the steam train, announced the situation publicly during a meeting of the Board of Directors of the East Bay Regional Park District in October. She said that she was hesitant to make any investments in the railway’s future while negotiations for a new contract dragged on, and that she was considering leaving the park altogether.

Indeed, negotiations have been ongoing for more than seven years, with months-long stretches of no apparent progress in the last two years, according to emails and lease drafts that Berkeleyside obtained through a California Public Records Act request. Since at least July 2024, Thomsen has been telling EBRPD staff that the railway would have to leave the park.

But in the weeks following Thomsen’s publicity lap last fall, the records show the park district backed down on a suite of her biggest long-standing demands.

Park district meets some of operator’s core demands
Ellen Thomsen, second-generation owner of the Redwood Valley Railway, rides the train. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside

On Nov. 5, Sabrina Landreth, then the park district’s general manager, sat down in person with Thomsen and agreed to flip the rent and maintenance fees in the new contract. Now, Redwood Valley Railway would pay just 2% of its sales in rent, with an additional 8% going to a maintenance fund. That would create a bigger pot of money for EBRPD-approved railway improvement projects.

Also, Thomsen finally got her wish to include a security residence in the new contract. The planned building is meant to house 24/7 live-in security staff as well as decades of business records that Thomsen currently keeps in her own house. The residence is a key piece of Thomsen’s plan for the railway’s long-term future. She also hopes to eventually transfer railway ownership to a nonprofit entity, so she was pleased that EBRPD dropped its bid for right of first refusal to purchase the railway.

These were some of the core demands the railway company put forth back in 2018, when this dispute began with a six-page letter the company’s lawyer sent to the park district.

“They are making the effort. It’s just like pulling teeth, though.”

Ellen Thomsen

Landreth resigned the day after their meeting, saying the park district’s board had asked her to violate open government and personnel laws. Her commitments to the railway have stood, though, and Thomsen says they were “really big” movements.

Then, in December, Thomsen and the District signed a side agreement allowing Redwood Valley Railway to build an addition to its Roundhouse. That expansion had been near the top of Thomsen’s wishlist, too.

“They are making the effort. It’s just like pulling teeth, though,” Thomsen said in early February.

The Tilden Park steam train has has been a defining feature of the Berkeley Hills since 1952. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside
Hopes that the dispute will be resolved soon

In recent weeks, after Berkeleyside reached out for comment, park district leadership has expressed a desire to make even more progress. Even Thomsen is striking a slightly more optimistic tone.

“I have great hopes that this will be resolved soon,” she said in an email on Wednesday, but added, “(Just like I did in 2018.)”

One of her new frustrations began last year, when EBRPD staff told her they wanted to present a “term sheet” to their Board of Directors for approval before drafting the full contract language. In an interview, Thomsen called this a “goofy idea.”

“It does focus the discussion, but then they want me to sign it,” Thomsen said in early February. “I’m not signing anything until we have a final contract.”

Intern Leo Shrego in the Tilden Park railway’s workshop. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside

If they insist on her signature, she said, “we’re going to have to pick up and leave pretty soon,” though she said it would take several years and a lot of money for the railway to leave Tilden.

In a statement, EBRPD said the term sheet is “a non-binding document,” and that this approach was helpful for approving the addition to the Roundhouse last year — even though Thomsen didn’t sign the term sheet for that project.

The acting general manager of EBRPD, Max Korten, said in an interview with Berkeleyside on Tuesday that signing the term sheet is “not important at all.” Korten added that, although he’s been supporting the staff who work with the steam train contract, he would be happy to meet with Thomsen one-on-one.

“It’s such a cool, unique thing for the community,” Korten said, adding that he has visited the steam trains countless times with his own son. “I just want to make sure that’s there and available for all the kids in the East Bay and further.”

The next day, Thomsen told Berkeleyside that park district staff had scheduled a new meeting with her this Friday.

Korten also offered an olive branch on Thomsen’s other sticking point: what to call the new contract.

Thomsen, who likes to keep her nails long, shows the grime and dirt that gather after a day working on the engines. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside

Back in 2020, a year and two meetings after Thomsen’s lawyer first sent her demands, EBRPD tried to take the simplest path forward: extend the old lease another 10 years.

But after years of seeing EBRPD staff and leadership come and go, Thomsen said she wanted a new agreement with more protections and rights for her company. In the same 2020 email that proposed the lease extension, EBRPD had denied her request to build a security residence. With no agreement, the lease went month-to-month, and that’s how it’s been ever since.

A year ago Thomsen agreed to use a concession agreement rather than a tenant agreement, with the understanding that this would make her rent a percentage of sales and secure the maintenance fund. What she didn’t expect, she says, is that this would mean the new agreement would be called a “license” rather than a lease. In her eyes, a license means less autonomy. It’s for businesses that operate park-owned equipment, like the merry-go-round.

“All we’re doing is renting the dirt under us,” Thomsen said. “They don’t have any say over our equipment or our business or anything.”

Korten said the park district was trying to find a creative solution, and that he recently spoke with staff about whether they could simply call it an “agreement” rather than a license.

“Maybe it’s just making sure we have the right name for it,” he said. “As long as what we call it is in the legal parameters of what it is, again, I think we want to do our best to kind of meet in the middle.”

The Tilden Park steam train, operated by the Redwood Valley Railway, winds its way through the trees on Feb. 28, 2026. .Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside

Thomsen inherited the business from her father, a Western Pacific Railroad engineer named Erich Thomsen, who founded the railway in the 1950s. He made “living history in miniature,” Ellen Thomsen said. 

She says she’s been working there since she was old enough to see over the ticket counter; that she shepherded the railway through the last round of lease negotiations, in the 2000s, and that now, in her 70s, she wants to negotiate a contract that will secure the railway’s future without her.

“This is our chance to get it right for the next 20 years, so I’ve got to get it right,” she said.

In the available records, Thomsen’s threats begin in summer 2024, when she spiked a series of memos to the park district’s board of directors with warnings that, without a security residence and a long-term agreement, “we would have to pull up the tracks, and leave Tilden.”

Now, having taken her grievances public and seen a surge of progress, she’s still a little cautious about the future. In an email on Wednesday, she told Berkeleyside, “The staff is really motivated to make this all go away. We’ll see.”

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